I've never seen them before! Beautiful! I was driving home from two birthday parties and I saw some odd clouds... then realizing, "Hey! Those clouds are green and moving!"
I don't think they have been this far south in 15 years.
Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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They were so awesome... pale green curtains near the north and HUGE streaks going up up up to the center of the sky...
They only lasted about 10 minutes unfortunatly... was only able to alert 2 people in time to see them.
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I used to live in northern Canada and saw the Northern Lights all the time. They're pretty cool. And the further north you are, the more brilliant and fantastic they are. Or, to be more accurate, the closer to the magnetic north pole you are, the more brilliant and fantastic they are.
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<--- grew up in Alaska. I've seen the aurora while sitting in a hot tub out in the snow. The best show I've seen of them was a couple of years ago while hubby and I were at a drive in movie. The movie was just ho-hum, so I was looking up into the sky and saw they were dancing brighter than I'd ever seen before. Greens, blues, purples.... Hubby and I got out of the car and just stood there looking at the sky with our mouths hanging open. Before long, we had a crowd around us, all doing the same thing. It was magic.
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Yeah, they're neat, aren't they? I see them every winter, myself. One of the few advantages to living in Alaska.
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My brother and his wife lived in anchorage for a while... They said they felt they were ripped off, they said they never once saw them.
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I am soooo jealous...hopefully, if I go to University of Manitoba next year, I'll be able to see them...
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I'm in southern Missouri. I saw a glowing patch of sky tonight ~8 or 9 PM CST. No color to it, but I did get to see that much Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Raia, if the Northern Lights make it to Jerusalem, then we got big big problems. It ain't something ya wanna hope for. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Northern Lights is sort of one of my step-dad's new obsessions. He takes his digital Canon Rebel, connects it to his self-syncronizing $1000+ telescope, and goes star watching.
At about 5pm last night, he suddenly stalked out of the computer room, and proceeded to gather all of his warm gear and camera such. Apparently one of the astronomy websites he frequents shows solar activity charts, and the numbers were the highest they'd been in at least 3 years.
So once it got dark, he disappeared north in his truck. (we live in michigan, so its not too terribly hard to excape the light pollution).
The rest our family was left with an extra portion of dinner to split up, and we occasionally stepped outside to peek.
IT WAS HUGE!!!!
At times, more than half of the sky was lit with an odd glow. Many times you could see distinct movement of greens and reds and purples. Dancing like faerie fire. Amazing. To look up and see the sky shift and fade and glow like that is spectacular. What we saw here was like what you see in the Alaskan movies.
Apparently the center of this activity was the furthest south something this large has been in years. People as far south as FLORIDA were able to see faint glows, if not colors.
Wondering what cool pictures Russ (step-dad) was able to get. He's gotten phenominal pictures in the past, especially 3 years ago, when solar activity was peaked higher than it had in centuries. He's had some of his photos used by several well known astronomy web-pages (none of which i can detail at the moment), and the walls of our dining room are covered in framed photos.
I'll see if I can't get him to let me upload a few to phobonic or some such so you guys that didn't see it can see whatcha missed.
I did hope on AIM last night and told nearly everyone in what remains of my "Hatrack" buddy list to "go outside, look up, and be amazed"
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I heard that they will possibly be visible again tonight. Everyone remember to go out and check!
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I saw it last night too, in southern Michigan. It was amazing. I immediately thought of northern lights, but I thought, no way, and assumed I was just seeing some weird lit-up clouds. In the dark. Northern lights make a lot more sense. *relieved*
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Northern lights are aurora borealis and southern lights are aurora corealis.
I saw the northern lights from a plane, once. Most incredible thing ever, because you could see so much more of them.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Oddly enough, I got a spectacular view of the northern lights last night. Specifically, I was flying over Canada at 37,000 feet, and got to watch them for well over an hour.
Very cool. I suppose it was even cool enough to offset arriving in Phoenix at 1:30 in the morning
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Supposedly the Northern Lights got as far south as Kentucky during the recent solar flares, but it was too cloudy for me to see them.
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I, for one, find it slightly amusing that there are people making it a goal to do something before they die that I've gotten to do every year of my life. It may seem like I'm gloating, but really it's just that my being Alaskan has had so few advantages for me. We never get any good concerts up here, celebrities never visit for any reason (it's the only state in the country OSC's never been to, isn't it?), everything is so expensive, and the only time people think about Alaska at all, it's always to make some statement relating to the concept of "cold". I can't drive to any other state conveniently, but unlike the other state that can say that, nobody thinks of this place as a paradise of any kind. I can't even attend any Hatrack gatherings because it would require rather expensive airfare to get anywhere in this country where anyone actually lives. So I intend to enjoy this "Northern Lights" thing for a moment.
quote:Wow, someone else who lives in Alaska. I thought I was the only one.
Born and raised. I've been here two dozen years now. Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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[subliminal message]OSC needs to do a book signing in Alaska . . . OSC needs to do a book signing in Alaska . . . [/subliminal message]
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Why on earth would you WANT to go to University of Manitoba? You know the city's called Winterpeg, right?
Where are you now that makes you look forward to Winterpeg?
heheh, yes...I am very aware of why they call it Winterpeg...but the school I'm at now (in the Fraser Valley, in BC) doesn't offer a Linguistics programme, so if I want to take it I have to live on campus somewhere...and it is the least expensive for me to go to U of M because I have family there, and I could rent a place with a cousin or stay at my aunt's house or something...and it will be nice to be away from home...but yeah, definately not going for the weather...I mean, even if I had SAD I'd favour BC's cold and rainy winters over perpetual snow and freezing-ness...but I still might get to see the aurora borealis there...and that would be one major plus
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quote:Also, the northern lights are out outside my apartment, and filling probably 3/4ths of the sky, from straight overhead all the way down to the horizon in what looks like a green version of the gilded rays in the Ecstasy of St. Theresa
Also, the southern lights are called the Aurora Australis, not corealis.
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I'd love to see them, but I doubt they'll make it this far south. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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